New ‘Arrested Development’ TV Series And Movie Are Coming

Could it be true? Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz announced yesterday that the comedy will return to television for a nine or ten episode run as a lead-in for the maybe-finally-happening Arrested Development movie. Hurwitz made the announcement at The New Yorker Festival, where the entire cast was reunited for the first time since the show’s 2005 cancellation.

“[I] found that as time went by, there was so much more to the story. In fact, where everyone’s been for five years became a big part of the story,” said Hurwitz. “So in working on the screenplay, I found even if I just gave five minutes per character to that back story, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together.”

The plan is to focus each of the new episodes on a different member of the Bluth family, which Jason Bateman confirmed via his Twitter page. “It’s true,” Bateman wrote. “We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!”

There’s no word yet on where the new series will air, though Showtime and Netflix have both shown strong interest. Sounds good, just as long as they don’t air on Fox. The network would only show three episodes back-to-back on a Friday night opposite the Olympics before cancellation. (NY Times)